by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
After an 11-year career with the City, Director of Planning and Development Brad Thoburn is leaving the City early next month for a planning job with the Florida Department of Transportation.
March 5 is Thoburn’s last day with the City. He’ll start the next day at his appointed position with FDOT as its transportation development administrator.
“I will oversee the policy planning, system planning and environmental management,” said Thoburn, who also worked under Mayor John Delaney and was appointed the City’s planning director in 2007 after Mike Saylor resigned.
Thoburn said the job will require extensive travel around the state and he’ll spend plenty of time in Tallahassee as well as Washington, D.C. He also said the job wasn’t created and has been vacant for a while.
Misty Skipper, spokesperson for the mayor’s office, said Thoburn’s job as City planner is important and will be filled.
“We are working to put an interim structure in place,” said Skipper. “We will conduct a comprehensive search for a new planning director. Planning director is such a critical position that it needs to be filled. The structure there is solid.
“Having someone lead the planning department is critical. It needs to be filled.”
Skipper said the mayor’s office will look at both internal and external candidates. Two years ago when the position was open, over 50 people applied for the job.
Thoburn said the position is especially important right now given that the reauthorization of the Federal Safety Act is underway. The reauthorization occurs every seven years and dictates how states get their transportation funding.
“I get the sense this year there will be a more dramatic revision,” said Thoburn. “They (the federal Department of Transportation) are rethinking where we are and will take a new look at the transportation vision for the country. It’s exciting to be in the middle of that.”
The fact that each Peyton appointee will possibly be looking for a new job in a little over two years did not play a role in his decision to take the job, said Thoburn.
“It’s an opportunity that came up and the timing is right for me to do it for a variety of reasons,” he said. “It just made sense and it’s a great opportunity for me to do something I really enjoy. It wasn’t in any way related to the mayor’s timeline.”
356-2466